


Amber to Ember.

by spaceedanny



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Fire, Gen, Phanniemay 2016, angsty, communes ??, if there's something else i should tag please let me know, live burning, yeah i made up names for her family from before she died bite me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 07:47:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6745507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceedanny/pseuds/spaceedanny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amber Mclain grew up in a small community, where being different would not be entertained. When she steps beyond the boundaries just a little too much, her frustrated mother takes charge to help the situation for her family and for those around them. </p><p>Written for Phanniemay 2016, Day 4 - Ember</p>
            </blockquote>





	Amber to Ember.

**Author's Note:**

> warning!! it's about to fuckin go down

Commune, The Homes  
Illinois, U.S.A.  
1:24 A.M.  
Ten years ago.

 

In a rather small home built like a cheap log cabin with exposed wood and what most people would call the bare minimum in terms of furniture, windows, insulation, etcetera, someone was woken by a cold wind slapping them in the face. She sat up and opened her eyes to see that the only window in the room was wide open. Her feet are firmly planted on the ground, possibly but hopefully not waking someone else in the house, and moves over to close the window.

  
At the window this young girl looks out at the other homes nearby, all of which completely dark, just like theirs. The wind, continually nipping at her as she began to “zone out”. After a moment or two she came back to her senses and slammed the windows closed - because hey, how else are they gonna stay closed, right?

  
The half asleep being (she referred to herself as this in her mind at times like this) turns around to walk back to her bed when she glances over at her sibling’s bed. It was empty. The pillows and blankets looked as though they hadn’t been disturbed once that night.

  
Tired and confused, the child lightly pushes open her bedroom door and stumbles over to their parents’ bedroom. Their plain, wooden door - matching the rest of the wood in the house, what a surprise - was left open as they lay side by side in a - yet again - wooden bed. Child moves over with precision in each of her steps, trying to keep quiet. Only a couple steps were needed to get her to her mother’s side of the bed where she lightly shook her arm to wake her up. Her mother opened her eyes slowly, clearly coming out of a deep sleep.

  
“Wh-at is i-it sweetie?” she asked groggily, expecting something along the lines of “I don’t feel good,” or, “I had a bad dream.” Instead she got something she really wasn’t in the mood to deal with

  
“Where’s Amber?”

 

The Cat Box  
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A  
1:36 A.M.

“Hey love! How do you feel about tonight?” a cheery voice called out from the back of the house. They caught Amber just as she was setting up some of her equipment.

  
“I’m excited! This is the biggest show I’ve done so far.” Granted, she hadn’t done very many because of her living situation, but maybe a tonight would change things for her. Either way when she looked up the person asking about her feelings or whatever was gone. She brushed it off as the person probably walking away and her not hearing a thing.

  
_Click!_  
Amber turned on the mic for a sound check. Everything seemed good to go.

  
“You’ve gotta head backstage, we’re opening up the house in five minutes,” yelled a crotchety sounding deep voice coming from one of the security guys near the entrances.  
With a simple nod Amber took her things off stage and went back to prepare her appearance for the biggest show of her life.

  
The venue she was at tonight was considered to be the hottest and most exclusive in Chicago at the time. It was only open from the hours of midnight to ten in the morning (not the other way around), and was designed for all kinds of wild people. Most of the people who did show up were expensive but damn near grunge like hipsters, pop punk and punk rock people who wore an odd amount of chains - hell probably so much that they could attack others at the venue but thankfully things were always peaceful between the show goers - and whoever else found it cool.

  
All of them were going to come and see her, Amber Mclain, and make her dreams come true. She would finally be someone, a person everyone knew and loved, a famous entity.

 

Commune, The Homes  
Illinois, U.S.A.  
1:38 A.M.

“I cannot believe she did this again! Does that girl have any respect for this family? For this community? For what we stand for? She must not give a single care if she continually disobeys us this way. Where will it end? With our official outcasting and eternal shame? _Where_ , Tamara, _where_?” Amber’s father yelled at her mother about their rogue daughter.

  
This had been the fifth time in the last two months that she has pulled a stunt like this. In the community they lived in, disrespect like this, and leaving the commune the way she did was looked down upon greatly.

  
Tamara stared at the wall. She was visibly distant, off somewhere in thought. Suddenly something in her must have snapped when she stood up and looked over at her husband.

  
“Tonight, Tom, this ends tonight. May I please take the community van to the city?”

  
Tom’s face spelled out confusion with hints of fear, but he was curious as to just what his wife would do.  
“Yes. Be very careful. I’ll be sure to get Alice back to sleep.” He stood, stepped over to his wife’s position and gave her a kiss.

  
Tamara grabbed her shoes and a box of matches from the living room and stepped onto the porch. After shoving her feet into her shoes and stuffing the box of matches into a coat pocket she jogged out to the van.  
Being the kind of community they were, they simply left the keys in the van at all times and left it unlocked. That allowed Tamara to hop in, start it up, and drive toward the city in a little under a minute

 

The Cat Box  
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.  
2:04 A.M.

“You’re on in five,” some manager of some sort said as they popped their head into Amber’s dressing room and popped right back out.

She was finishing up her makeup when she heard the door open again, this time someone entering carrying something heavy sounding. Before Amber could close her compact to turn around and look at the character in her room, she felt them right behind her.

It smelled like her mother, but also something else. Something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on but that she knew she shouldn’t be smelling.

  
“Mother?” she says shakily. She’s frozen in fear wondering how she was found here, and what would happen when they got home.

  
“This is the last time you disobey and disrespect us. I’m very sorry for what I’m about to do. Just know that I’m doing this because I love you.”

  
Amber spins around in her chair to see just what her mother was talking about when she spots the spare gas can from the community van in her right hand.  
Tamara throws the unscrewed cap she held in her left hand to the floor, and she raises the can above her unruly daughter’s head. Ahead of Amber’s ability to fight back, Tamara had already begun to pour the gasoline all over her.

It doused the girl’s dyed blue hair - wait, that wasn’t blue earlier today...did she dye it when she got here tonight? - along with the black crop top and skinny jeans she wore. The room temperature liquid began to pool at the bottom of her black leather boots, and even washed away some of her winged eyeliner. Amber stood now, soaking, screaming, staring her mother directly in the eyes as she pulled out her box of matches.

  
Tamara took a match from the box, and struck it on the side. Amber remained in front of her, now silent, as she was paralyzed in fear. She knew what would be next.

  
With a gentle toss toward the younger individual, the match made contact with her now dark blue hair. Every part of the girl was set aflame. Tamara just stood and watched her child scream in agony, smelling the burning hair, flesh, and clothing. Her expression was completely blank. It was as if she had no remorse whatsoever.

  
Before someone else in the building could come to take her away, the woman walked out with the little bit of gas she had left and went for the stage where Amber’s beloved guitar rest next to a microphone. She didn’t realize it, but the curtains were drawn and the crowd of 600 or more people watched as she dumped the last of the gas in the can over the instrument and set fire to it just as she had done with her child.

  
The people in the crowd kept their chill and simply walked out, wondering what happened to the poor girl they wanted to see that night.

Nobody really asked questions about the happening.   
People decided to just not talk about it and leave things to whoever else was going to deal with some weird happenings at an odd underground venue at two in the morning.

Most of them forgot about the incident by the next day

 

The Ghost Zone  
Ember’s Lair  
Present day.

Ember sat silent, holding two photos. One, of her twenty minutes before her last living show was supposed to begin, and the other of her family on their commune with the rest of the people from there.

Her flaming blue hair grew in size and intensity, not because of a gain in power, but more from a rise in hatred. A rise in bitterness. She tore both the photos to shreds and placed them in her hair where they were burned until they were nothing.

  
Quietly, angrily, she says, “To this, I would like to dedicate my comeback tour. Specifically I would like to dedicate this to my loving and nurturing mother. Fuck you mom. And fuck all of you for thinking you could get rid of me so easy.”

**Author's Note:**

> wow i gave her parents the most white people ass names i could think of didn't I. also i couldn't really describe how it felt to be doused in gas because like???? i've never been doused in gas nor do i know anyone who has so like yeah????? anyway i hope y'all enjoy this and hopefully i'll put out something for another day this phanniemay

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [all water](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6795484) by [godlet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/godlet/pseuds/godlet)




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